The management of hair involves the use of many fluids which can irritate the eyes and skin. In particular, people may have "permanents" or have their hair colored in some way and these treatments involve the use of potentially irritating fluids. In an attempt to minimize the eye and/or skin irritation from these fluids, absorbent head bands, usually made from cotton or rayon, are wrapped around the head to absorb the excess fluid. These absorbent bands are then discarded after use. Two deficiencies of "cotton" wraps are the fragile nature of band and the inability of the band to remove the fluid from contact with the skin. This invention provides improvements in both of these areas. Current manufactured products are carded cotton sliver which may or may not be reinforced with some means to increase integrity of the sliver.
Patents of interest include U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,023,279; 3,529,308; 4,481,680; 5,133,371; 4,958,385; 4,656,671; 3,015,335 and 5,033,122. None of these patents refer to the use of capillary surface materials in the disclosed inventions.
Fibers useful in the present invention are described in detail in pending U.S. Ser. No. 736,267 filed Jul. 23, 1991; Ser. No. 133,426 filed Oct. 8, 1993, and European Patent No. WO92/00407. Although these documents disclose that the fibers may be used in head bands, they do not disclose the characteristics of the head band now being claimed. Pertinent portions of specifications from these documents are contained in the present specification under the heading "Fibers".
Presently available absorbent articles and the like are generally adequate at absorbing aqueous fluids. However, during typical use such articles become saturated at the impingement zone while other zones removed from the impingement zone will remain dry. As a result, a substantial portion of the total absorbent capabilities of such articles remains unused. Thus, it would be highly desirable to have a means for transporting the aqueous fluids from the impingement zone to other areas of the absorbent article to more fully utilize the article's total absorbent capability. We have discovered such a means by the use of certain fibers that are capable of transporting aqueous fluids on their surfaces.
Liquid transport behavior phenomena in single fibers has been studied to a limited extent in the prior art (see, for example, A. M. Schwartz & F. W. Minor, J. Coll. Sci., 14, 572 (1959)).
There are several factors which influence the flow of liquids in fibrous structures. The geometry of the pore-structure in the fabrics (capillarity), the nature of the solid surface (surface free energy, contact angle), the geometry of the solid surface (surface roughness, grooves, etc.), the chemical/physical treatment of the solid surface (caustic hydrolysis, plasma treatment, grafting, application of hydrophobic/hydrophilic finishes), and the chemical nature of the fluid all can influence liquid transport phenomena in fibrous structures.
French Patent 955,625, Paul Chevalier, "Improvements in Spinning Artificial Fiber", published Jan. 16, 1950, discloses fibers of synthetic origin with alleged improved capillarity. The fibers are said to have continuous or discontinuous grooves positioned in the longitudinal direction.
Also, the art discloses various H-shapes, for example, in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,121,040; 3,650,659; 870,280; 4,179,259; 3,249,669; 3,623,939; 3,156,607; 3,109,195; 3,383,276; 4,707,409.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,409 describes a spinneret having an orifice defined by two intersecting slots and each intersecting slot in turn defined by three quadrilateral sections connected in series.
Further, PCT International Publication No. WO90/12/30, published on Oct. 18, 1990, entitled "Fibers Capable of Spontaneously Transporting Fluids" discloses fibers that are capable of spontaneously transporting water on their surfaces and useful structures made from such fibers.
We have discovered head bands of particular fibers that have a unique combination of properties that allows for spontaneous transport of aqueous fluids such as water on their surfaces.